Two-year anniversary Vale’s crime in Brumadinho has symbolic acts in cities of the Paraopeba basin
Due to the pandemic, actions were carried out with social distancing, in open places and with participants wearing masks
Publicado 29/01/2021 - Atualizado 29/01/2021
Unable to organize large-scale demonstrations to respect measures of social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, those affected by the rupture of the dam in Brumadinho organized symbolic acts in the municipalities affected by the consequences of Vale’s crime in the Paraopeba River basin, this Monday (25).
In Betim, at around 7:30 am, affected blocked the MG 155 highway, by the neighborhood of Citrolândia, with banners denouncing the dissatisfaction with the lack of participation in the judicial agreement treated behind closed doors between the government of Minas Gerais and the company.
Also in Betim, there was a “mística” with a series of statements at Cine Glória to remember the lives lost in the announced tragedy. At noon, an act was carried out on the ferry that connects the municipality to São Joaquim de Bicas and a banner extended on the Paraopeba River.
“We are suffering a lot, just yesterday itself was a day that Vale did not provide drinking water, we were in need,” says Rosa, a resident of São Joaquim de Bicas.
As a way of remembering the 11 victims not yet found, the affected people paid a simple tribute by throwing 11 roses in the Paraopeba River. The act took place in Brumadinho, and was also repeated in Betim, São Joaquim de Bicas, Mário Campos and Juatuba.
At 10 o’clock in the morning, on the bridge over the Paraopeba River, which cuts through the city of Brumadinho, after throwing the 11 roses into the river, the victims went to the city sign, which is at the entrance of Brumadinho, and is the place where families of the victims gather since the day of the dam rupture two years ago.
There, the families released balloons and called the 272 names, followed by the painful cry of “absent”. Masses were held in Brumadinho and in other cities in the region.
In São Joaquim de Bicas, affected extended a banner on a viaduct at Fernão Dias highway (BR-381) with the following message: “people die of thirst without water and without emergency aid, Vale profits unpunished”. Another point of protest was BR 262, which was blocked for about 30 minutes. In a soccer field in the Francelinos neighborhood, a symbolic act remembered the families’ pain families with roses and balloons.
Other acts took place in Congonhas, Mário Campos and in front of the Minas Gerais Court of Justice (TJMG) headquarters in Belo Horizonte.
“It’s been two years, we’ve lost our fauna, our flora, the workers are out of a job, it’s hunger, it’s degradation, it’s neglect, we want justice, we want the arrest of those responsible for the deaths of 272 people,” claims the affected Joelísia Feitosa, in protest in Juatuba.
In the evening, projections were made with messages denouncing the crime at the National Museum building, in the Federal District, and at Vale’s headquarters in downtown Rio de Janeiro.